Essie Ruby Slippers

There are a lot of "ruby slipper" themed polishes out there. China Glaze Ruby Pumps is a notorious and often copied one. Essie's Ruby Slippers is unlike all of the glittery red shades I've seen with the Wizard of Oz moniker. It's a discontinued and vintage-y polish, not sure what year it came out.

The glitter is red and maybe gold, it's hard to tell but there is a definite gold ember-like glow against the darkened red jelly base. There might be some pink sparkles buried in there as well. What I love most about this polish is that it is really easy to apply for a glitter, it wasn't lumpy and thick or anything. People commented on my mani asking if I got glitter gel nails, which I find a terrific compliment. I used one coat of Seche Vite to smooth it but it wasn't terribly bumpy either.

I think this is a real find and I'm lucky to have gotten a full size bottle in a swap. *swoon*

Franken: Inglorious

Inglorious is the name of my frankened emerald green scattered holo polish. I made it using a bit of silver holo polish, can't remember at the moment which one, and Sinful Colors dark green jelly called Last Chance with a few drops of China Glaze's Bermuda Breakaway. I also found some silver holo glitter at Sally Beauty supply by a brand called SuperNail called Silver Rush that I put in for extra oomph.

I photographed this on a not super sunny day so it doesn't look as spectacular as it is, but it is rather nicely holo. I like it very much. The name comes from one of my favorite movies, Inglorious Basterds. The lovely Maria gave me some new empty bottles when I won her last giveaway so I'll be making some more frankens here soon I think! Thanks again sugar :)

FingerPaints Peace, Love & Color Collection Part 2

Here is the second half of the FingerPaints Summer collection Peace, Love & Color Collection. These three were the stronger half for me of the six lacquers. I still don't really love any of them, however. I am not a negative nelly and hate to give poor reviews but I'm never going to lie ya know? Anyway, I'll stop being dramatic and just get on with it.

Groovy Green is probably my favorite out of the bunch, even though I thought I was going to hate it. It ended up having a pearl finish which you cannot tell at all by looking at it in the bottle. I was not expecting to like it because when painting it on it was difficult as all heck to apply, it was thick and not smooth and kept dragging on itself. But when I finally had it on nicely (after three coats) and looked at my photos of it, I really like how it looks on me. *shrugs* Go figure.

Give Pink a Chance is pretty boring. It's a slightly reddish dark pink crème that gave me bubbles. *yawn* Sorry I'm not really into this one. It doesn't do anything for me or my skintone. Three coats for opacity when I would've expected two.

Peaceful Purple is another glitter but this one has color to the base unlike All You Need is Color, although I would've liked a little more. It's a jelly and hard to handle like the other glitters in the collection. Thick and gummy, hard to make level out. The purple glitter is red based and very lovely and you purple lovers will adore it I'm sure. This is two coats. All I could muster without getting totally frustrated.

So this collection is unfortunately a bust for me but there are plenty more fish in the sea for me this year. Summer collections are usually not my favorite anyway and there has been more than enough good ones this year to warrant my love than last year so that's good! What do you think of FP's picks for the sunny season?

Products provided for review.

FingerPaints Peace, Love & Color Collection Part 1

FingerPaints has come out with a bright new collection for the summer, called Peace, Love & Color. I was quite looking forward to these pretties, but they turned out to be a little bit of a disappointment for me. I'm just not feeling them. They are plenty attractive I suppose but they just aren't my cup of tea.

Outta Sight Orange is medium orange with pink and silvery glass fleck shimmer glitter in it. I was thinking I would like this but I'm not crazy about it. I have a few other similar colors that I like better. This is two coats.

I also had high hopes for Psychedelic Sunshine but it turned out pretty terrible. A light daisy yellow with gold and holographic glitter? Sounds awesome but the formula was awful. The texture is so thick that it feels like glue and it is also really sheer. This is two coats and that's all I could manage dealing with. Ugh, too bad.

All You Need is Color looked really exciting from the promo pictures I saw, but I was dismayed when I realized it was just a straight glitter lacquer. I really don't care for plain glitter in clear polish, but it's a personal preference, you might love them. It wasn't terribly hard to make this opaque but it was difficult to make it level out evenly. I imagine you'd have to use a lot of topcoat. I also imagined this more blue rather than teal *shrug* I hear it's a dupe for Butter London's Henley Regatta.

Part 2 coming at you soon with the next three from this collection so stay tuned!

Products provided for review.

Lippmann Lara's Theme Sneak Peek

Check out the newest eye-popping shade to come from the genius of Deborah Lippmann, Lara's Theme created with supermodel Lara Stone. An orange fire shade that really looks like it was made for me ;) I cannot wait to get this on my nails!

Price: $16
Where to find: Barneys New York, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, and online at www.deborahlippmann.com 

For insider information on all things Deborah Lippmann, follower her on Twitter - @deborahlippmann

Press release provided by the manufacturer.

China Glaze Wild Mink

Wild Mink is my pink for this Wednesday :) As you may have noticed, some of the nail polish bloggers have started a little clique that has one rule, er I mean trend. On Wednesdays We Wear Pink! My good friend Kirsten is one of the founders so 'natch I had to join in. I don't think I'll participate every week, but I thought it would be a fun idea and a good excuse to show off more of my pinks. Plus it reminds me of one of my favorite chick flicks, Mean Girls. I could quote that movie from beginning to end!

This polish is in China Glaze's core collection, another polish I kind of overlooked throughout the years. I finally picked it up on a random shopping trip to Sally's, no doubt to pick up more acetone or topcoat. Turns out I really love this beauty, it's a dainty but spirited salmon pink crème that glides on really painlessly with impressive pigment and opacity. A very nice color to have in your collection I would say!

China Glaze Solar Power

It is the summer of yellow! This sunny butter polish is courtesy of China Glaze, from their Eco Collection of 2008. Solar Power is a core collection polish available at Sally Beauty but for some reason I had always passed it by. Well, being so on trend, of course haha, I decided to pick it up. Plus I wanted to see what Misa's Under My Sunbrella looked like over an opaque yellow. This is a crème with a slight bit of gold shimmer, more of a light dusting really. Very chic! I actually love this and can't believe I didn't pick it up sooner.

Here it is with Under My Sunbrella layered over it. Very pretty and super summer sassy wouldn't you say? This is definitely one of my favorite combos ever.

How are you liking the yellow trend this season? Is it not your thing or are you diving into it headfirst?

Color Club Wicked Sweet Collection

I've never tried scented polish before I got to test out the Color Club Wicked Sweet collection. Now I know I do not like them. Well, scratch that. I cannot like them. I think these polishes are really pretty and well made but the smell makes my head feel like it's imploding. They have perfectly lovely scents that have a candy theme, but after a few minutes of them, I felt like I had jumped into a vat of melting candy after halloween or something. I am very sensitive to smells and the wrong scent can even give me a migraine at times, so I am probably not meant to have these. *Le Sigh* Shame.

This is the first neon collection from Color Club I will show you, as they came out with a second one for the summer this year. The collection is made up of seven shades. I swatched them here as a skittles mani. (Before you ask, I did try them by themselves and they still overwhelmed me so that wasn't the problem :( Sad panda.)

Raspberry Rush is on my index finger, it is a magenta jelly crème with a fab finish. La la love this one! It doesn't really smell like raspberries, more like jelly beans to me. Wicked Sweet is on my middle finger, the frosty blue raspberry color. It smells like artificial sugar to me, sounds yucky but it's delightful! The Lime Starts Here on my ring finger is a neon lime green jelly crème with a sour scent. On my pinky is Gimme a Grape Big Kiss, which I thought was my favorite scent at first turned out to be the one that gave me the worst headache. It had that grape hard candy smell that really lingers. It's a lovely polish though, jelly crème purple with red tones. And on my thumb is Get Your Lem-On, a shimmery neon yellow with a lemon drop scent. I like it but it took a bit to build up opacity and I had some bubbles in this one and didn't in the others.

Here are the last two shades along with three of the ones I've already talked about. On my index is I Always Get My Man-darin, a shimmery light icy orange with a fakey orange scent. Sort of like Tampico haha. And last is Yum Gum, a safe light bubblegum pink with a bubblegum scent that is light and almost stale, wish it was a little sweeter. Well if we're wishing for things, I wish I could tolerate the scents of these at all because I do like them very much. Have you tried these out?

Products provided for review.

MAC In the Buff

With the upcoming Surf Baby collection from MAC coming up, I was thinking about their last years shore-themed collection, To the Beach and it reminded me that I had gotten the lacquer In the Buff from it and hadn't tried it yet. I was thinking it would look nice on my longer than usual nails (at the time) so I slapped it on.

I really really want to love this but it isn't doing it for me like I thought it would. I thought it would be like a 9 on a scale of 1-10 and it's more like a 5. Boo. I still love the color itself but I'm not totally enchanted over it on me. It's a sandy muted tan crème, with an almost green undertone. This is three coats.

*Le Sigh* Oh well. I hope Scorcher, the other polish from To the Beach looks better on me. I'll swatch it one of these days :)

SkinScience Institute: Spa Review

As you may know, I reside in Northern Utah where there is plenty of wind, rain, snow and sun. The high desert gets its fair share of crappy weather. This can wreak havoc on a person's skin. Mine included. I have lived in Utah and Nevada for basically all my life so you'd think my skin would be used to the harsh conditions. Nay. I have dry/oily, wind-blown, and acne-prone skin that dislikes the seasons as much as my internal thermostat does. Basically it makes for a lot of necessary make-up tricks on my part in order to look presentable most of the time. When I was offered the chance to visit a local Utah County day spa for a service, I jumped at the chance. I normally go for pedicures at a local salon, but I decided to step out of my comfort zone and try a facial. My skin has been looking a little more haggard than usual these days so I figured it could use a little R and R.

I was allowed to bring a friend, so of course I brought my bestie and partner in crime, my older sister Clarrisa. We both arrived at the SkinScience Institute in Orem, UT for our appointments last Saturday a bit early but we ended up being about 10 minutes late because we couldn't find the place! The signs outside the office complex where it is located (across from University Mall, if you're familiar with the area) is a little confusing as it leads you to believe it could be in three different buildings. It ended up being in the one building with no markers on the doors. We mentioned this to the ladies in the school, and they nodded in agreement saying it was in the works. Apparently this is a new location, apparent as some construction efforts were still underway in the office. *shrug* We laughed it off and got set filling out a consultation form, a little like one you would see at the doctor's office, more geared towards skin care.

The front office area of the Orem SkinScience Institute.

After that we were led into a small "locker room" where we could put on a wrap ala tube top thing (which was a little small for me, not gonna lie) and bath robes (again, mine was a little small). Then we waited for our estethicians on a couch in a dim waiting area. There was a sound system all around the rooms pumping out tunes of the jungle and forest and such, it was a little odd at times but semi-soothing too. I got used to it, although Clarrisa said the bird calls reminded her of whiny babies haha.

Clarrisa is my model.

Very relaxing couch.

Our two estheticians, Becky and Sarah came to consult with us before our facials. They were super nice and sweet. Our facials were wonderful and fabulously executed. Even though I have no basis for comparison, I was really impressed with my service. The facial lasted about an hour and a half, maybe even a bit longer.

Ooh, awww, relaaaaxxxx.

I had my skin cleansed, toned, exfoliated, extractions, a mask, moisturized, an eye treatment, a scalp massage, and a neck and shoulder massage as well. Clarrisa's was a bit different as her skin is in better shape than mine and needed different treatments. All the products they used smelled amazing and were name brand, like Murad and Jane Iredale. Sarah, my esthetician, was very friendly and knowledgeable about everything. She answered and asked questions effectively and I felt really comfortable with her, which is important. Clarrisa and I were both very satisfied and felt glowing and relaxed for the rest of the day!

Claire and I with freshly facialed faces.

I totally plan on making more appointments to indulge and pamper myself and my skin. They have all kinds of treatments available, body wraps, lymphatic drainage, hot stone facials, chemical peels, waxing, lash tinting, etc. Plus they are all priced super reasonably. I mean, the facial we got is normally about $30. For almost 2 hours? Uh YES please! I do hope a few things get fixed at this location, like the restrooms weren't working and I wasn't thrilled with having a robe and a wrap that didn't fit. But overall I really loved the experience and will definitely be going back.

Services were provided for review.

Misa Paradise Shore Collection

Ahh lovely Misa. You do not disappoint. Paradise Shore is made up of six bright summer shimmers with glitter, glass flecks, shimmer and even a bit of metallic glint. Very beachy and quite in tune with this season's trends.

Krystal Water is a turquoise shimmer with a gorgeous glaze of ocean blue. I wasn't expecting to love this as much as I did but I really think it sparkles and glows beautifully. This is two coats.

Endless Keys was another color I wasn't sure about just looking at it in the bottle, but on the nail it is spectacular. The crushed shimmer plates of gold in this juicy tangelo orange jelly look so radiant! This is also two coats.

Mega Margarita is a super icy looking green with tiny gold, green, and pink glitter that certainly remind me of it's cocktail namesake. Makes me thirsty just thinking about it! This one is totally a hit for summer, fantastic! Three coats here.

Summer Love is a bold fuschia pink with pink glass fleck glitter and a slight blue duochrome. This one is definitely close to China Glaze's 108 degrees but I think this one has a slight edge as it's not as sheer. Two coats here.

Mermaid Dreams is one I wore as a full manicure on a Saturday out shopping that I did not stop getting compliments on. Literally everywhere I went, someone commented on it. It's almost a foil metallic shimmer, a watery blue color that I imagine to be the color of a perfectly still lagoon. Three coats on this one, only because I did it in the car and the first two coats were janky.

Under My Sunbrella is so freaking fun. I really love it. I have been waiting for a fun yellow all summer. Well it's not even technically summer yet so I guess I haven't really been waiting haha. This is pretty warm, very buttery with tons of golden glitter. I think it would look nice layered too, but here is it on it's own. Two coats.

I've heard talk that this is super similar to another collection that came out this season, but oh well, a lot of collections come out every season that are similar in color families to each other, let's not dwell on that. I really love Misa's products because of their quality and performance. They last a long time on me and their formula is excellent. I personally love these lacquers A LOT and I think they are amazing summer colors. I hope you like them and that you enjoyed this review.

Products provided for review.

Man Glaze F*ck Off and Dye

I am kind of a potty mouth in my day to day life. It's very un-ladylike to curse like a sailor, I know. It's a pretty bad habit but I figure there are worse things and I watch my mouth at the appropo times I think, mostly on this blog (if not always on my twitter haha). I don't find it offensive in movies or in music although I know that is not always the general public's opinion and my blog is geared toward the masses of course. There are not many things that I'm a prude about really, and I'm not going to pass up a polish with a less than angelic name.

My beloved Man Glaze has come out with a PINK polish! The matte lacquer masters are known for their rock n' roll devil-may-care attitude and this polish may be a surprise to some of their fans but I've been expecting this twist for a while. There are two versions of this pink polish, a dirty name version called F*ck Off and Dye (without the asterisk) and a clean version named Blue. I, of course got the naughty one ;)

This is literally one of the best matte polishes I've ever used. It's not too thick and doesn't dry immediately so you can manipulate it easily. Plus it's a fab color, almost fuschia-like. Two coats.

I had to use a topcoat on it, just to see some of that shimmah I knew was in there, and LOOK! Freaking HAWT! This picture doesn't even begin to show you how rad it is in real life.

You like?

Lex Cosmetics Cayman Cabana

I showed you two colors from Lex Cosmetics a while ago, and here is one more actually the first and signature color made by Lex's founder, Lex herself, called Cayman Cabana. Each of the polishes from Lex Cosmetics have a "color story" because they are created from someone's idea. I really love the idea of her company. Plus a portion of the proceeds from each one sold goes to a charity of the creator's choice.

"...Cayman Cabana is breezy and bright, perfect for the summer days or as an escape from the cold winter nights. It's reminiscent of the colorful homes found in the Caribean and Virgin Islands and happens to be the color of the gorgeous ocean down there. If you can't make it to the Caymans, this color can at least take your mind there." - $1 from each bottle sold of this color goes to the World Wildlife Fund

I really love this color, it's easy to paint on and it's super opaque. This is two coats of beachy seafoam green crème.

You should go check out Lex's site and submit an idea for you own custom color! It just might be the next one in her polish line! www.LexCosmetics.com

Products provided for review.